How can we identify and realize growth opportunities? That’s the multibillion-dollar question that looms large on the minds of pharma and biotech companies when their drugs enter the maturation phase. In our experience, pharmaceutical and biotech companies take one of two broad approaches to address this problem: understanding and addressing the provider, patient or payer barriers or diving deeper into field force effectiveness to improve the customer experience. The choice of approach depends on whether marketing or sales leadership initiates the franchise-wide pursuit of additional growth opportunities.

There’s no shortage of news about how artificial intelligence techniques are helping us engage customers better in healthcare. Many pharmaceutical companies have visions of Amazon-like targeting serving up Netflix-esque recommendations on how to engage customers better with the right channels, content and cadence.

It’s common knowledge that the success of a launch sets the long-term trajectory of a pharmaceutical brand. In past decades, companies would double down on their research investments with massive sales forces, reaching every plausible potential prescriber, but in today’s environment, promotional resources often are limited. This means that targeting the right customers is increasingly important to ensuring that a new brand’s launch is successful.

This post is the first in a four-part series on how pharmaceutical companies can elevate their forecasting operations.

Effective forecasts should inform many decisions, from earnings guidance to brand-level investment prioritization. To do that effectively, forecasters should be a strategic partner to the broader organization by supporting investment decisions and risk management. Achieving that partnership requires a forecasting organization that’s objective and data-driven, comprehensive and consistent across the portfolio and globally, constantly adapting to a changing healthcare and technology landscape, and focused on enabling real-time organizational decision-making and risk management.

Strategy workshops help organizations explore how their actions can drive market events and competitor responses. They’re an internal exercise for the organization to prepare, debate and challenge internal assumptions and to assess strategic choices. When executed effectively, the workshop will challenge participants to define clear strategic objectives, inspire lively debate and encourage the critical evaluation of a diverse list of ideas.

How can we identify and realize growth opportunities? That’s the multibillion-dollar question that looms large on the minds of pharma and biotech companies when their drugs enter the maturation phase. In our experience, pharmaceutical and biotech companies take one of two broad approaches to address this problem: understanding and addressing the provider, patient or payer barriers or diving deeper into field force effectiveness to improve the customer experience. The choice of approach depends on whether marketing or sales leadership initiates the franchise-wide pursuit of additional growth opportunities.

There’s no shortage of news about how artificial intelligence techniques are helping us engage customers better in healthcare. Many pharmaceutical companies have visions of Amazon-like targeting serving up Netflix-esque recommendations on how to engage customers better with the right channels, content and cadence.

It’s common knowledge that the success of a launch sets the long-term trajectory of a pharmaceutical brand. In past decades, companies would double down on their research investments with massive sales forces, reaching every plausible potential prescriber, but in today’s environment, promotional resources often are limited. This means that targeting the right customers is increasingly important to ensuring that a new brand’s launch is successful.

This post is the first in a four-part series on how pharmaceutical companies can elevate their forecasting operations.

Effective forecasts should inform many decisions, from earnings guidance to brand-level investment prioritization. To do that effectively, forecasters should be a strategic partner to the broader organization by supporting investment decisions and risk management. Achieving that partnership requires a forecasting organization that’s objective and data-driven, comprehensive and consistent across the portfolio and globally, constantly adapting to a changing healthcare and technology landscape, and focused on enabling real-time organizational decision-making and risk management.

Strategy workshops help organizations explore how their actions can drive market events and competitor responses. They’re an internal exercise for the organization to prepare, debate and challenge internal assumptions and to assess strategic choices. When executed effectively, the workshop will challenge participants to define clear strategic objectives, inspire lively debate and encourage the critical evaluation of a diverse list of ideas.